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Odd car features that failed

For every inventive and useful car feature that is developed there are some that missed the mark. Take a look at some of the most ridiculous car features.

Semi-automatic transmission: This was basically a manually transmission without a clutch pedal. It was activated by the driver putting his or her hand on the shift lever. This was used by Porsche and Volkswagen.

Rear-facing seats: These were mainly used in station wagons. The very last seat in the wagon faced the rear of the car, which often resulted in the person sitting in that seat getting motion sickness from traveling backwards.

Record player: Before there were MP3 plug-ins or CD players, and even before cassette players, there was the in-car record player. Chrysler offered this from 1956 to 1957. However, drivers had to buy special sized records to work in the car’s player, and record often got scratched during bumpy drives.

Mounted horse head: When very early car models were made, there were still horses on roads. A fake horse head mounted on the front of a car was supposed to make horses less afraid of cars.

Swamp coolers: These were sold in the mid-1900s. The idea was that the large, water-filled device would create humidified air inside the car. They stopped being used once cars became equipped with air conditioning.

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